The Royal Tombs of Alaca Höyük: what is known of the buried

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

The Met's timeline for Anatolia and the Caucasus gives Alaca Höyük, in central Anatolia, one of the period's key events: at the site is a group of burials called the Royal Tombs, which contain elaborate gold jewelry, vessels of precious metal, and stag and bull standards of bronze. The event is dated about 2350-2150 BCE, and on the same page the "Hattian culture" is dated to the same years. Source 1.

Who the buried were

The source words the identity of the buried carefully: "Though we may be able to identify" them as Hattians, a local Anatolian population, "the significance and function of their art remains enigmatic". The identification is thus presented as a possibility, not a finding, and the source does not say what it rests on. "Royal Tombs" is the name by which the group is called; the page makes no claim that the buried were kings, and gives no names, number of graves, ages or sexes. Source 1.

Dating and placement

The range of about 2350-2150 BCE lies entirely within the Early Bronze Age of Anatolia, which the same source dates about 3000-2000 BCE, so the article is placed in that row. The source describes the Early Bronze Age as a time when the region's rich resources in metals such as tin and silver attract new populations, customs and artistic styles from Mesopotamia, Syria and the Caucasus Mountains; that is a statement about the whole region, and the source does not link it explicitly to the tombs. The article "Troy I-II: a citadel that grew in the Early Bronze Age" presents another site in the same row. Source 1.

A comparison from the Caucasus

The same page describes a group of large tumulus graves in the northern Caucasus that belong to the Maikop culture. In the best known of them a person is buried under a canopy held up by poles topped by gold and silver bull figurines that "appear similar in artistic conception" to some standards from the burials of Alaca Höyük. The source dates the Maikop graves to the mid-3rd millennium BCE and adds that some suggest the second half of the 4th millennium BCE. Similarity in artistic conception does not establish a direct link or a direction of influence, and the source does not claim either. Source 1.

Scope of reading: the Met timeline page "Anatolia and the Caucasus, 8000-2000 B.C." was read on 24 October 2026. The Alaca Höyük excavation reports and the publications of its finds were not read, so this page gives no number of graves, no plan, no list of finds and no present location of the finds.